Beyond has just launched
three new games for the
liddle 'ol Speccy, the first of
which it reckons will take
adventure players by storm.
It's called Lords of
Midnight and, according to
the description, it's not
actually an adventure at all.
but - rather - an 'Epic'.
The idea is that, unlike other
adventures. you don't need to
restrict yourself to just one
character and your routes are
no longer dictated by the
programmer in advance. This
program knows where a given
character is on the map,
checks the direction he is
facing and draws the whole
scene, foreground to
background, in perspective.
Thus, every time you leave a
location and return to it from
a new direction, it'll be drawn
again with a different
background; and every time
you move forward, distant
peaks become mighty
mountains and houses grow
into great towers, flanked by
forests. This is all made
possible through (it's
claimed) a new programming
technique called landscaping
which gives the program a
possible 32,000 views.
The idea of the game is to
gather armies from the
various people you meet; you
have to convince them to join
you, but of course there are
some who are simply enemies
and must be destroyed. As
the force splits to defeat the
evil Witchking Doomdark you
can see the dramatic
happenings through the eyes
of each character. There's an
accompanying 32-page
booklet which includes a map
of the land and the game
should retail for around
£9.95.

The second game from
Beyond is called Psytron,
and in it you play the part of
a computer (Psytron itself)
which controls the massive
Betula 5 installation - a sort
of moonbase type set-up. The
computer controls every
aspect of the place, from
defending the base against
evil intruders to assessing
everyone's oxygen needs and
allocating food and work.
The problem is that the base
is being constantly attacked
and bombed from the skies
while saboteurs (of the three-
legged canine variety) run
loose underneath the
floorboards. The aim of the
game is to keep the base
running, and all human life is
expendable in order to
maintain the mighty Psytron.
There are six levels and,
according to the
accompanying booklet,
they've been carefully
designed to take you through
the game step-by-step; you
mustn't overload your all-too-
human mind.
You may be interested to
know that level six has only
one aim - to survive for half
an hour! Beyond is
challenging players to
achieve this great feat and the
reward is ... wait for it ... a
QL. Obviously, the
company's not expecting
anyone to manage it for a
while yet. Anyway, full
details are in the pack. The
game, by the way, sells for
£7.95.
Last in the bunch comes
Spellbound, where you take
the part of a frog and attempt
to race down the steps of the
fortress before Griselda the
witch catches you with her
spells. Straightforward stuff it
may be, but there are 12
levels of action to get
through. Spellbound costs
£5.95 and all Beyond's
games should be available in
your shops now.

Parker has moved into the
home micro market with
cartridges for use on the
Interface 2.
Three of the five releases
will be translations of arcade
games: Popeye, Q*Bert and
Return of the Jedi - Death
Star Battle. Two others are
completely new. Fresh from
the arcades, Gyruss is a
shoot 'em up with a new
perspective. The pilot ship
travels 360 degrees around
the edge of the screen and the
opposing marauders attack
from the centre.
The final release is Star
Wars - The Arcade Game
which graphically re-enacts
the destruction of the Death
Star taken, of course,
direct from the original film.
Parker hopes to have the
games finished by June/July
for release in August.

In Spellbound you must use your frog's legs to hop fast down those steps before Griselda puts a spell on you!

Psytron's view of the Betula 5 installation. There's terror in the skies and under the floorboards.

For all of you who bought
The Hobbit, avidly read the
book, tried to play the game
and were still confused,
Melbourne House has
published a new book that
could well answer your
prayers (or may alternatively
bring on a few nightmares). A Guide To Playing The
Hobbit splits up into three
sections. The first offers the
reader a broad outline of the
general strategies and tactics
involved, and the second and
third sections give an
increasing amount of
guidance and detailed
solutions to the problems
encountered while playing
the game. Melbourne reckons
that the guide won't spoil the
fun of it all because the
solution is only offered
among many other
possibilities. The Hobbit may have won
the Golden Joystick Award
for 'Strategy Game of the
Year' in 1983, but it's really
saying something when
companies have to publish
the Guide to the Game of the
Book just so that people can
play it properly! A Guide To Playing The
Hobbit is published by
Melbourne Rouse, written by
David Elkan and costs
£3.95; it should be available
from bookshops now.

The powers that be at CCS
have, in their ultimate
wisdom, decided that girls
don't want to play the same
sort of games as boys; and
based on this presumably
unresearched piece of
observation, the company's
launched (as far as the
feminist movement would be
concerned) a highly dubious
range of games for the fairer
sex. Hicksted/Mathsted is a
show-jumping simulation of
that well-known event of the
same name - but here the
maths version involves
getting over the jumps only
when the answers given are
correct; could this one be for
all budding Princess Annes? Jungle Adventure involves
the player taking the part of a
young jungle girl making her
way home through the trees,
while Diamond Quest is
quite simply an adventure
game full of colour and

diamonds - which are, as we
all know, a girl's best friend.
CCS describes the games
as being less involved with
killing monsters and more
concerned with either bribing
or avoiding them - traits
which everyone knows to be
thoroughly feminine. Well ...
aren't they? Just to make sure
we asked a fully paid up
member of the female sex (a
staffer) exactly what she
thought of CCS's gender-
orientated efforts. She said,
"They were boring with no
monsters; I didn't play any of
them for long". She also
admitted that what put her off
most was the words on the
packaging.
Anyway, if this seems to
be your cup of ideologically
unsound tea, Hicksted and
Jungle Adventure retail at
£6.00 each, Diamond Quest
is £5.00. Further details from
Case Computer Simulations
Ltd, 14 Langton Way,
Blackheath London 5E3
7TL.